OK butcher, so the M4(76) will never need more than 1 shot to kill anything in the game at under 1000yds or so, regardless of circumstances, glad to know the Tiger II, Panther, and Tiger are grossly over-perked, and I'll be sure not to drive them when I get back 
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Tanks that can/sometimes DO require more than shot to kill:
Tiger II
Tiger I
Panther
M4(76)
T-34/85
Panzer IV
Tanks that potentially could (but I have yet to see in combat) need more than 1 shot to kill:
T-34/76
M4(75)
M4's if they're covering the bottom of their hull will almost be guranteed to need more than 1 shot to kill.
Tiger II's will ALWAYS need more than 1 shot to kill, since the M4 can't kill them from the front.
Tiger I will almost always need more than 1 shot to kill it.
Panther will usually need more than 1 shot to kill it.
And the Panzer IV will sometimes need more than 1 shot to kill it if you miss the turret, usually when hes angled.
The Firefly is basicly guaranteed to kill any tank but the Tiger II, Panther, and Tiger I in a single penetrating shot, regardless of hit location. And it will often one-shot Panthers and sometimes the Tiger I.
And about the damage, the current system seems to assign a damage value for each shell (infact, I'm almost sure of it, since the assign damage values to bullets and cannon shells). Firefly seems to have a higher damage value (based on its rarely needing multiple shots to kill the most common tanks at close-med range).
As for the rest of your post, its completly irrelevent to everything I was talking about. It doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the advantages you gain by driving a firefly. It just talks about the weaknesses of ALL tanks compared to the M18 and airsupport.
Most everything you said above can be condensed in to these next few points: Range is the trump card. The King Tiger is joker. The Firefly is the 1 eyed jack.
We do not know the actual damage value of the AP rounds of each tank, all we know is the AP damage to OBJ, which HTC has said outright that the damage to OBJ and the damage to planes and vehicles are 2 very different things. The Firefly actually has a weaker HE shell (140lbs), and a very standard AP damage round (78lbs). So again, we do not really know who much damage it does to gv's, we only know it is the second best tank AP gun in AH.
The M4/76mm and M18 are very much in the game against anything inside 1400 to 1600 yards, and for that matter so is the Panzer IV H (which actually has superior AP ability to the M4/76 and M18). The equation is very simple, really. The impact angle of the projectile on the armor, the velocity of the projectile, and the weight of the projectile all factor in. So if you are in a Pazner IV H, and you take a round from a Panther at 1000 on the right side of the turret from the front, a glancing shot is very likely to happen. Take that same round and hit square on the turret of the Panzer IV H and "puuf" up in smoke it goes. Few things are absolute.
The Firefly can 1 shot a Panther and Tiger at 2000 yards if the shot is at or very near a squared impact. Only the King Tiger is safe, in theory, from the Firefly at 2000 yards. Look it up. None of the M4 tanks are safe at 2000 yards from anything (save maybe the M4/75, T34/76, or M8) if the shot is at or very near a squared impact.
FWIW, I think the Panther is tougher to engage than the Tiger. The Panther has a higher speed, it is faster firing, flatter shooting, has a far faster turret traverse, and actually has better armor up front than that the Tiger. On top of all that is offers a smaller target to dial in and shoot at.
